The Corn Exchange is a commercial building in the High Street in

Manningtree Manningtree is a town and civil parish in the Tendring district of Essex, England, which lies on the River Stour. It is part of the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Smallest town claim Manningtree has traditionall ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, England. The structure, which is now used as a public library, is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

In the mid-19th century, a group of local businessmen decided to form a company, to be known as the "Manningtree Corn Exchange and Cattle Market Company", to finance and commission a purpose-built

corn exchange A corn exchange is a building where merchants trade grains. The word "corn" in British English denotes all cereal grains, such as wheat and barley; in the United States these buildings were called grain exchanges. Such trade was common in towns ...

for the town. The site they selected was on the south side of the High Street. The building was designed by Frederick Barnes of

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

in the

neoclassical style Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

, built by George Hewitt also of Ipswich in white brick with a

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

finish at a cost of £1,600, and was officially opened on 31 August 1865. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto the High Street. The central bay, which was taller and slightly recessed, contained a

tetrastyle A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cultu ...

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

formed by four

Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic classical order, orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric order, Doric and the Corinthian order, Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan order, Tuscan (a plainer Doric) ...

columns supporting an

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

and a

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

. On the first floor, there was a central round headed window, while the outer bays were fenestrated by round headed windows at ground floor level. All three bays were surmounted by

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

s and cornices. Internally, the principal room was the main trading hall. The use of the building as a corn exchange declined significantly in the wake of the Great Depression of British Agriculture in the late 19th century, and, from about 1900, it was used as a venue for public entertainment. In the early 1960s, Tending Rural District Council considered proposals for demolition of the building, but the Manningtree Society successfully campaigned for its retention. Instead, it was converted for use as a church for the trustees of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brentwood, to a design by

Raymond Erith Raymond Charles Erith RA FRIBA (7 August 1904 – 30 November 1973) was a leading classical architect in England during the period dominated by the modern movement after the Second World War. His work demonstrates his continual interest in expan ...

, between 1966 and 1967. In the mid-1980s, it was converted again, this time for use as a public library. The Manningtree and District Museum Local History Group secured a room in the building to display its collection to the public at that time. Items in the collection include local memorabilia and photographs.

References

{{reflist Commercial buildings completed in 1865 Manningtree Grade II listed buildings in Essex

Libraries in Essex

History

See also

References